


The New South

by adventurepants



Category: Designing Women
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-06-07
Updated: 2009-06-07
Packaged: 2017-10-15 22:43:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/165606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adventurepants/pseuds/adventurepants
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Can’t we just, you know, crawl back into the closet?  Say it was a funny joke we were tryin’ out to prepare for April Fools?”</p>
            </blockquote>





	The New South

Suzanne was on the first plane home from Japan, predictably, blowing into Sugarbaker’s like a hurricane and saying she just couldn’t believe the same parents that created her had birthed a homosexual. And that Julia was _far_ too old to go deciding she was a lesbian.

Julia explained to her patiently no less than three times that number one, she was not _just_ deciding, and it’s not something you decide anyway; number two, she is bisexual (and yes, bisexuality is real- and no, she does not have to pick one.) And three, Suzanne’s reaction was the exact reason she had never come out, as it were.

Secretly, though, Suzanne was delighted- with Reese gone and Payne grown up and far from the nest, she worried endlessly about leaving her big sister alone in Atlanta with no family and no one to take care of her- not that Julia had _ever_ needed taken care of, but that was not her point. Her point was now she didn’t have to worry so much, and anything that made her life easier was just fine.

Carlene was ecstatic. “I feel so progressive, havin’ bisexual friends! I bet no one back home in Poplar Bluff has bisexual friends… although, we were pretty sure our high school PE teacher was a lesbian? But you know, you can’t exactly just come out in Poplar Bluff. But she’d get real twinkly eyed every time our math teacher Miss Jackson would come around, and she had that real short hair, y’know, and… oh my God, y’all, can I tell Charlene?”

Judging from the joyful shrieking on the other end of the phone, it seemed like Charlene was excited for them as well. Anthony wanted to know exactly how long it had been going on, but before Mary Jo could get a word out he decided no, he did not need to know anything at all more than he knew already, thank you very much.

Julia took all of this in stride, as she did most things. But Mary Jo, curled up against her side on the couch after work, pleaded “Can’t we just, you know, crawl back into the closet? Say it was a funny joke we were tryin’ out to prepare for April Fools?”

“Mary Jo,” Julia said, that gentle scolding in her voice. “You don’t mean that.”

“I do!” Mary Jo promised. “If this is what it means to be an out and proud woman of the 90’s, then forget it.”

Julia just laughed, and placed a kiss on Mary Jo’s temple. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the reactions haven’t exactly been _bad._ ”

“What about Suzanne?” Mary Jo asked, incredulous. “Forgive me if I’m misinterpreting, but she didn’t seem _thrilled_ to have a member of her family engaging in an _alternative lifestyle._ ”

“Oh, Suzanne just loves a spectacle.” Julia waved her hand dismissively. “If she were really upset she wouldn’t have come at all.”

(Julia was right, of course. Before Suzanne left for Japan again, she sat Mary Jo down and explained to her that not only was Julia her sister, she was her best friend and probably her favorite person, and she admired and respected her more than anyone on Earth- not that Mary Jo was to go spreading that information around, you see. And that she had, admittedly, grown fond of Mary Jo over the years, but that if Mary Jo were to ever hurt Julia in any way, Suzanne would not hesitate to have Consuela put a curse on her. And furthermore, Mary Jo had better keep herself in good health, because Julia had already dealt with _far_ too much pain, losing both Hayden and Reese.

Mary Jo had probably never loved Suzanne more than she did while receiving this lecture.)

Even so, Mary Jo still wasn’t sure she was ready for all these life-changing admissions they’d been making. She’d been under the impression all these years that she was completely straight, and admitting to just herself and Julia that she wasn’t had been hard enough. And she could hardly bear the thought of her children being ashamed of or disgusted by her.

She set a goal for herself- that she would tell them by a certain date- and immensely regretted ever communicating this to Julia, because when that date came, Julia held her to her promise.

Mary Jo sat on her kitchen floor with Brownie in her lap, absently petting his head as she moaned “I can’t do it, Brownie. What if they hate me? I couldn’t stand it. What if Quint wants to move out and live with Ted?” She looked into Brownie’s big, kind eyes. “You’ll still love me, won’tcha, Brownie? You’re open-minded.” She looked up at Julia, who leaned against a counter nearby. “What do you say we just forget I said I was going to do this, okay? I don’t think I can.”

Julia arched an eyebrow. “Now you listen to me, Mary Jo. You can do this. You have never shown Claudia and Quint anything but love, and kindness, and support, and I know you want to be honest with them. They may not like it at first, they may be confused, they may be upset, but you are their _mother._ You’re the one who took care of them while Ted was off having affairs with every big-breasted nurse in Atlanta. You are the one who has stayed strong for them their entire lives, and that’s what they’re going to remember. And if they don’t like the fact that you’re with a woman, they will come around.”

Julia reached out a hand for Mary Jo, who gently removed Brownie from her lap and allowed herself to be pulled up off the floor. “Why do you always have to be so damn inspiring?” Mary Jo grumbled, looking near tears.

Julia smiled and pulled Mary Jo close, rubbing her back softly. “Because I have _you_ to inspire _me._ ”

With this on her mind, Mary Jo rose to the occasion and spit it out unceremoniously over dinner. Claudia, having come to consider herself quite worldly after a year at college, was mostly unphased. Quentin looked a great deal more uncomfortable, and had a lot of questions. Would Julia move into their house? Would they all move into Julia’s house? What would happen if the kids at school found out, and was this why she and JD had broken up, and should he stop calling her _Aunt_ Julia? And then the one that broke her heart- Would it be okay if he maybe stayed with his dad for just a couple days? Just to have some time to think?

“Well… Well sure, if that’s what you need to do, as long as it’s okay with your dad,” Mary Jo answered, struggling to keep her voice even. She faintly registered Julia taking her hand and squeezing it under the table as Quentin excused himself to call Ted.

She managed to keep it together as she drove her son to his father’s house, thinking she had better swing by the grocery store on the way back, because if she flooded one carton of ice cream with tears, she was going to need a back up. But as she pulled into Ted’s driveway, Quint gathered his backpack and paused with his hand on the door handle. He turned toward her and hugged her as tightly as she could remember him doing in years.

“I love you, Mom,” he said. “I love you no matter what.”


End file.
